Tablet art: touch screen technology as a creative tool

Between making coffee, juices, smoothies and doing some cooking at his wife's health food cafe, Wonthaggi artist Jamie Folan uses the tools of the 21st century to create beautiful images on his tablet.

ABC OPEN GIPPSLAND ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Jamie Folan, Wonthaggi

How did you come to become interested in drawing?

I suppose I have always drawn things. As a child I loved to draw.at school I gave up art in the 3rd year of secondary school, times were hard in the UK then ,a money shortage, strikes, power cuts a two or three day week. political turmoil. I saw no future in art, it was about getting an apprenticeship and a job. Very limited pictures were painted for us at that time. I made some choices that looking back now I regret. My art teacher told me I could take the equivalent of the VCE early if I did one more year but I dropped it for the sciences and maths and English etc. My parents would have supported me in going on to further education but I did not think they could afford it.

So I became a thermal insulation engineer, a lagger. I specialised in the sheet metal fabrication side of things. So drawing and developing were a big part of what I did. You have to draw to explain things. Technical things, problems, solutions worked out on paper.

Years later when I started to travel I would carry a sketch pad for drawing and writing down ideas but real interest bloomed again after I completed a self empowerment course. I started painting but had trouble with colour and could not get the results I was looking for.I bought a few fine liners and paper and started to draw patterns in nature and shadows and light, I was interested in the feel and form, so I used lots of lines.the simplicity of those early works gave me a second wind after feeling I was missing something vital with paints. What kind of subjects interest you?

Most of my work is based on my view of things that are happening to me, or have happened to me. My sketches can then take me months to complete. The actual process is quite a journey full of its own moments of frustration, anger, bliss and inspiration- its all in there just to catch a moment ..it's a journey.

For example, I did a small series of drawings based on a lecture I heard once about the connectedness of things.The lecturer spoke of organisms in nature that were connected in ways the eye could not see. My last piece was about a conversation I had 18 years ago with a good friend in Bali. One was about my frustrations about working at jobs I have no feel for. Another was about missing my family while they were away.

What kind of techniques do you use with your tablet?

The techniques I use in drawing are mostly around the use of lines. I build form using lines, repeating lines forming a structure. I usually start with a rough idea and then it just grows from there. The tablet stuff has come about in the last month or so. I join art pages on face book and I like to let people know if and or what I like or love about there work. I believe in appreciation, it has great power ,especially in creative arts. Sometimes likes and comments about your work raise you. The power of appreciation. I believe in it.

I was telling a friend I had just made on facebook that I loved his work and asked him about the medium and it was all done on his tablet with some art apps. So I got the apps and gave it a go but incorporated my own images into the work. It was so instantly gratifying rather than taking weeks or months. Plus I can experiment with colours and not commit to them till I know what it will look like. The wonders of technology. I have had some wonderful results.

Where would you like to take your art?

Ultimately I would love to earn a living from my art, it is what I love to do most and at my age not so much surprises me anymore. M art still surprises me. You know the feeling you get when you turn a corner and "woah look at that!". It's a bit like that but you have just spent a month in front of that surprise. I often roll a piece straight up and don't look at it for a month or two. Then It feels a bit like, shit did I do that ! moment. I don't know if I explained that very well.

I enjoy the social side of the work I do.The idea of creating for a living excites me though. Making coffees, juices and smoothies can be satisfying but not in the same way. Though I do have some wonderful conversations and meet some great and interesting people.

It has been interesting working at building the business my wife has started, it has also been a major distraction from producing Art. I made a deliberate decision to change that about a month or so ago and it's quite amazing what has happened since that decision.